


Defend the Weak

by Higgystar



Category: Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Domestic Violence, Kink Meme, domestic abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-29
Updated: 2014-05-29
Packaged: 2018-01-27 00:00:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1707365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Higgystar/pseuds/Higgystar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt from the kink meme: Daryl protects Carol from Ed. Shane has to then protect Daryl from Ed in return.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Defend the Weak

It ain’t none of their business. That’s what Merle keeps on telling him every time his brother notices his gaze lingering on the family at their camp. It ain’t his fault, he can’t help but see everything he knows is happening even if he ain’t seen it with his own eyes. Daryl knows it ain’t none of his business and he certainly knew just how much families like that kept that sort of thing to themselves and didn’t like anyone knowing, but he couldn’t help it. Every time he saw a new bruise on the wife or the little girl flinched away from someone he wanted to do something about it.

“What you gonna do huh? Ride in like a white knight and save their asses? You know shit like that don’t happen to people like them, so you’d better keep your nose out of it you hear?” Merle threatens him across their tent in the middle of the night and of course he agrees, telling himself he’d just ignore them like he did everyone else at camp and get on with the chores that needed doing. It doesn’t stop the noises though and even through Merle snoring beside him he can hear the muffled sobs of the wife being beaten for the smallest of things again.

Everyone else knows too. He can see it in their eyes and the way the women will cluster around the wife, Carol, when they can. They’ll all go and do chores as a group, giving glares to Ed when they thought no one else could see and speaking in a reassuring tone to her. Daryl’s seen the way she shakes her head, tugging down her sleeves to cover bruises even when it was hot as hell to have them down all the way. He fucking hates seeing it and he really fucking hates the memories it drags up.

Watching it all from a distance makes him feel as useless as he did back then, when mom would come downstairs in the morning frantically lighting a cigarette with shaking hands and makeup smeared across her face in a bad attempt to cover up a black eye. She never said anything about it, never directly. It was always, “you know how your father gets” and, “well I shouldn’t have spoken back to him” and tonnes of other excuses he just got sick of hearing eventually. Every single one of them was a lie and one he couldn’t fix the cause of so he’d stopped trying. And then later in life when he’d had to learn to hide his own bruises and scars he’d come up with his own lies and no one questioned him about them.

It was fucked up and he hated knowing it was going on, but every time he thought of going and giving that bastard Ed a piece of his mind Merle would know somehow and grab at his wrist, yanking him to the woods or their tent and smacking him upside the head for it. “Don’t even think it dummy. You forgot what happened whenever you opened your mouth to dad?” Of course not, he remembered it being worse, bleeding for hours on end and unable to move from his room for days afterwards. Merle nods, and in a moment of what could be considered kindness for his brother, he grasps at the back of his neck, pulling him in close to mutter in his ear. “You say anything and you’re only going to make it worse for her and that little girl. Best you could do is leave it alone little brother.”

He leaves it. As usual he does as he’s told and keeps quiet, walking away when he sees her bruises on her arms or when the little girl ducks and hides whenever he comes into view. He hates that part the most, that she assumes he’d be anything like either of their fathers and feels the need to hide from him. It hurts but he doesn’t say a word and even if the urge is there Merle only has to give him that look and he knows he’d only make it worse.

Daryl knows the entire group knows, he can see it in the way they act around them all. They’re nothing but nice to Carol and Sophia, but there’s a wall between all of them and Ed. They try to be civil and polite but he can see that whenever they have to interact with the man they’re on edge, waiting for a fight, just ready to see that moment when he snaps and point the finger that they were right. None of them have the guts to say anything, even if Daryl gets the feeling Shane’s lenience is beginning to evaporate with each day that passes.

Life in the quarry goes on, everyone still complains about the little things they miss, there’s the general consensus that scavenging from Atlanta was looking more and more like it was needed and Merle continued being a complete jerk to anyone and everyone he could. Still, they do their part and keep everyone fed, check for walkers on patrol and Daryl keeps his mouth shut and doesn’t get involved in anyone’s business.

It’s not his fault when he throws the first punch.

He’d been minding his own business, taking his time down by the pool in the quarry to cool his feet in the water, seated in the shade of one of the bigger boulders and just enjoying a few moments of peace and quiet. There was no privacy in the world anymore and the walls of the quarry made everything echo in a way that he just couldn’t ignore when the couple began hollering at each other. Well more like when Ed began calling his wife a no good whore who kept staring at the other men and who was bad mouthing him to all the other bitches. Daryl clenches his fists, bites his lip and tries to remain unnoticed but then in the middle of Carol’s hurried apology he hears the unmistakeable sound of a hit being landed and the sound of someone stumbling to the floor.

It’s too much and he really can’t stop himself from standing, storming over bare foot and fuming, every single time he’d been unable to do anything about it rearing inside of him and urging him on. “Hey! Don’t you dare fucking hit her!” He bellows, and all he can see is red and honestly he barely notices Carol on the floor trying to get him to back off, all he can see is his father, and he knows he’s finally big enough to actually do something about this. “You son of a bitch, you don’t get to treat her like that!”

Ed doesn’t even pause, staggering towards him with a lit cigarette still in his mouth and a dark look on his face. “Don’t you fucking tell me how to treat my wife boy, ain’t none of your business! You don’t know what bitches are like, you’ve got to keep them in line, maybe when you find yourself some pussy you’ll understand.” Ed shoves at him, using his superior weight to try and push him about and whatever it is inside of himself that’s been holding everything back finally snaps.

He punches the bastard as good as he knows how, smashing his knuckles right across the bridge of his nose and knocking him back a little at the force of it. It’s disgusting to say it feels good but a part of him isn’t in the quarry right now, it’s twenty years in the past and imagining he’d had the balls to do this back then. Daryl is too lost to dodge the hit he gets back in return and before he knows it they’re fighting, hitting and punching, he tries to get at Ed’s ribs, the other man grabs him in a headlock and he’s struggling to get free when a heavy boot smashes down on his bare foot, making him yell in pain as it’s crushed beneath the weight. Ed uses the moments to release him, yanking him up by his hair and shoving him backwards, making him lose his balance on his one good foot and stumble back into the water.

Carol is screaming on the shoreline, her hands up to her mouth and begging for them to stop whilst sobbing over it all. Finding his feet on the loose rocks he stands in the water as well as he can, ready when Ed shoves at him again and punching at his neck to try and catch him off guard. It doesn’t work, he only manages nothing more than a glancing blow before Ed’s fingers are in his hair, one meaty fist hitting at his ribs and face before he’s shoved to his knees and the next thing he knows there’s water in his lungs and stomach.

Daryl scrambles to get his feet beneath him, clawing at the hand in his hair and trying to get free from beneath the water. Every time he breaches the surface for a moment all he can hear is air and screaming, his ears trying to adjust to the sudden pressure change and his body spluttering and coughing for air. He’s never felt so desperate in his life and he really hasn’t known panic until this moment when he can’t breathe, he can’t see, he can’t hear and all there is to cling to is the pounding in his ear drums and flashes of light.

A hand grabs at his shirt, someone yanks at him and there’s air around him, his fingers tingle as they latch onto whoever’s arm it is in a death grip and he can’t let go as he digs his feet into the ground, getting himself as stable as he can and blinking water from his eyes. Every breath fucking burns his chest but he can’t stop, hacking and choking on water as another hand holds him steady beneath his arm, practically keeping him upright as he tries to remember just how to fucking breathe. Slowly the world tunes in around him, sound coming back as water drains from his ears and beneath his own thumping heartbeat he can hear someone repeating his name. “Daryl? Daryl? Come on man just breathe for me.”

He tries his best, still numb fingers digging in to the arm around him and gasping for air as the world stabilises before him. Shane is holding him up, both of them soaking wet and standing thigh deep in the water of the quarry and panting. Daryl can’t find the words to ask what the hell happened, so instead he just clings on to Shane and uses the other man’s body to stabilise himself as they make their way slowly to shore. He can see Lori and Carol in the distance, Carol is still crying but Lori is trying to calm her down.

Ed is storming off down the ways a bit, heading around the edge of the pool and soaking wet from their encounter. Coughing a little he clings to Shane, using the other man as a barrier between himself and Ed. Shane’s hands tighten their grip on him, and Daryl is sure it’s the water fogging his brain when he thinks he feels the other man tug him a little closer. “Yeah keep walking Ed!” Shane yells and he can see when Ed gives them a rather rude gesture in return.

Usually Daryl would join in the yelling but he can’t quite catch his voice yet and his chest still feels tight when he breathes so he lets Shane do it for him. He stumbles a little in the water, his bare feet trying to find purchase on the cold wet floor and Shane practically has to hold him up for a moment when he almost goes down again.

Despite the Georgian sun high in the sky he still feels cold when they hit the shoreline, padding out of the water and fuck he can feel that his foot isn’t right and glancing down he can see a huge boot shaped bruise starting to form already. “Shit man, I thought we’d lost you for a minute there.” Shane deposits him on the boulder he’d been in the shade of and Daryl takes a moment to run his fingers through his soaking wet hair, trying to get rid of the wetness there for a second whilst he gathers himself. “What the hell did you do to piss Ed off that much? I had to pry that bastard off of you, thought he was going to drown you.”

Daryl goes to snort at the idea, but his stomach suddenly rebels and he’s heaving up what feels to be about half of the lake. Shane’s hand is on his back, rubbing in circles as he pukes up the water he’d managed to swallow and he doesn’t remove it when Daryl sits back up. His hands are still a little shaky and he clenches them into fists, fucking pissed off that he’d managed to get caught off guard so easily and cursing himself for getting involved in someone else’s business.

This group was nothing but trouble for them, they should move on and get out of here, it would be better if it was just he and Merle again, but he knows they need numbers and he fucking hates that. Wiping at his mouth with the back of his hand he glances up to where Carol is being lead back up the path to camp, Lori hushing her and trying to wipe away her tears as best she could before glancing back down to them with a nod. He’s not sure, but he swears he sees a glimmer of understanding in her eyes when she looks to him.

“The fucker hit her.” He growls, voice rough from the abuse it had received and making him cough a little afterwards. He pretends he doesn’t feel the warmth of Shane’s hand still on his back, rubbing soothing circles and helping to ease the aches in his entire body. “Weren’t gonna sit back and do nothin’ about it.”

“Daryl…” Shane sighs and fuck he hates when people use that tone of voice on him, the one where they thought he needed every little thing explained to him as if he were stupid or something. “It’s their marriage, she’s his wife-“

“That don’t make her his!” He snaps back, rubbing at the back of his neck and standing by himself fully, grabbing at his boots from beside the rock and wincing at every step he tries to make on his injured foot. “Don’t give him no right to hit her like that or to talk to her like that and treat her that way. It ain’t right!” He spins to face the other man, angry at the cop for acting as if there was nothing he could do, acting as if everything was alright in the world and as if everything he’d ever been through when he was younger was totally normal. “No one should be allowed to treat their wife like that, or their kids, it ain’t fair!”

Shane holds his hands up slowly, moving closer and clearly not wanting to start a fight with him when he was like this. When he speaks he’s as calm as he can be but Daryl can hear the anger in his words when he talks and he can see that a part of Shane hadn’t wanted to let it all go so easy. “No, it ain’t fair you’re right. No one should have to deal with that shit but right now it’s for the good of the group that we all play nice with each other.” It looks as if it burns to continue speaking, but Shane carries on, meeting his eyes as he explains. “Listen man you and I both know Ed deserved that blow to the face you gave him and then some, but the man is volatile as you just saw. Numbers are important right now and we can’t have a loose cannon rocking the boat you hear me? What if he didn’t just take it out on you? What if he went and took it out on his little girl? Or one of the others back at camp because he was pissed off?”

Daryl has no answer to that so he just shrugs, placing his injured foot down and testing his weight on it with a grimace when it fucking hurts like a bitch. Shane gives a sigh and steps up beside him, an arm wrapping about his waist and giving him some support as they begin the slow walk back to Shane’s truck. Daryl wonders what would have happened if he and Lori hadn’t been on a water run and shivers at the thought. “I won’t do it again, but I ain’t apologising neither.” He mutters, hating the way his clothes stick to his back with wetness and how Shane’s hand against his side feels far too close to his skin. “Fucker deserved it.”

“I do not doubt that for a second.” Shane agrees, helping him into the truck before jumping in himself. “Had to pull him off you man, landed a good few hits myself before he would let go, honestly thought we’d lost you for a second.” Looking over Daryl can’t tell why the man sounds so shaken up over this whole thing, he figures maybe he just didn’t want to fuck up the group working so well together by letting a Dixon run loose. “Son of a bitch is going to be sporting a few nice bruises for a few days as are you by the looks of things.”

He groans at the thought and lifts a hand to trail his fingers over the sore parts of his face, there would be no hiding it from Merle at all then, his brother was going to rip him a new one for this. “Fuck, Merle’s going to kill me. Been telling me to keep my nose out of it for weeks.” He sighs, using the side mirror to check his face for anything that looked out of place.

“You ain’t gonna hear this often, but next time listen to your brother. I know it’s fucking shit but right now we’ve got to just grin and bear it for the good of the group alright?” Shane drives them back up the pathway to the campsite, and when he pulls up with the rest of the vehicles Daryl waits a moment before leaving the vehicle.

“I got it.” He nods before looking away, fidgeting a little as he tries to figure out exactly what the hell you should say to someone who stopped you from being drowned by an abusive asshole. “Thanks for saving my ass by the way.” Daryl shrugs, figuring that’s good enough before hopping out from the jeep.

“Thanks for giving me an excuse to punch that son of a bitch.” Shane smirks to him and for a second it’s nice to be able to have some semi-friendly banter with someone other than Merle. Then it’s back to business and he’s limping his way back over to his own tent, already able to see Merle getting to his feet and ready to kick his ass. “You just stop your brother from taking revenge and I’ll keep Ed off your cases, fair?”

Honestly Daryl didn’t think it was a fair deal at all, Shane had never had to try and keep Merle from going on the warpath before, but he wasn’t exactly in a position to disagree right now. He’d agreed to keep the group working together and he could do that even if it meant trying to keep Merle from defending his honour. “Fair.”

“What the fuck you gone and done to yourself now Darylina?” And Merle is on him, tugging at his wet shirt, prodding at his slowly bruising cheek and from anyone else it would look like he was being picked on, but from Merle it was his way of showing he was concerned. “This cop been giving you a hard time? Thought I taught you to defend yourself better than that dipshit.”

Rolling his eyes a little he shoves at Merle to get them to head back to their tent and if he hops along beside his brother whilst clutching his boots, it’s only because he doesn’t want to fall on his face like a moron. “Fuck off Merle, was just helping with the water run and got in the way. Shane was passing me one of the containers and stepped on my foot, I’d been barefoot and it fucking hurt, so of course I punched him, he punched me and here we are. Ain’t no big deal, was just a mistake.”

Merle doesn’t looks as if he buys it for a moment but Daryl knows he really can’t afford to have Merle know Ed had almost killed him. His brother may be a fucking dick who gave him most of his bruises, but he was also one possessive son of a bitch and Daryl had seen what happened to guys who dared to mess with Merle’s baby brother before. If Merle found out the truth he knew Ed wouldn’t have just a few bruises to worry about. When his brother snorts out a laugh and rolls his eyes Daryl knows he’s given in to the lie and when Merle grabs at his waist to help him limp back to their tent he feels a little relieved. “Dumbass.”

“Yeah.” He agrees, looking over his shoulder to Shane and sharing a nod of understanding before carrying on with Merle. “I’m such a dumbass.”


End file.
